Posted on 11/22/2005 7:26:10 AM PST by NYer
Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,
for thy Flesh is meat indeed;
ever may our souls be fed
with this true and living Bread;
day by day with strength supplied
through the life of him who died.
Vine of heaven, thy Blood supplies
this blest Cup of sacrifice;
'tis thy wounds our healing give,
to thy cross we look and live:
Thou our life! oh let me be
grafted, rooted, built in thee.
By denying the reality of him in the Eucharist. What else needs to be said? Each time you do it, it is like a slap on the face of my Jesus.
And one from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, which may have been posted earlier, but in context is good to read:
On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said: “Take, eat: this is my body”. He took the cup, gave thanks and said: “Take, drink: this is my blood”. Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to question it and say that it is not his blood?
Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine nature.
Once, when speaking to the Jews, Christ said: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall have no life in you. This horrified them and they left him. Not understanding his words in a spiritual way, they thought the Saviour wished them to practise cannibalism.
Under the old covenant there was showbread, but it came to an end with the old dispensation to which it belonged. Under the new covenant there is bread from heaven and the cup of salvation. These sanctify both soul and body, the bread being adapted to the sanctification of the body, the Word, to the sanctification of the soul.
Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith.
You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to man’s heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul.
May purity of conscience remove the veil from the face of your soul so that be contemplating the glory of the Lord, as in a mirror, you may be transformed from glory to glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen
I say that prayer before Mass most Sundays. Thanks for posting it!
"By denying the reality of him in the Eucharist. What else needs to be said? Each time you do it, it is like a slap on the face of my Jesus."
No, friend. We differ on how exactly he is present. I believe he is present spiritually. When I take communion I am not eating a piece of bread, but by faith accepting the life of Jesus and his death on my behalf.
You believe he is physically present - that the bread and wine literally become blood and flesh - a position that I understand from an intellectual perspective but have trouble finding a theological basis for.
But that would be an un-Catholic thing for the author to say.
We beleive the Bible when it tells us that God liked his Creation. It is inherently beautiful, all of it. To restrict beauty to Christ is to invite the question, why did God sent Him in the first place.
But there's nothing paganistic about the Church offering a celebration of beauty. If that were the entire kit and kaboodle - if the Church were to say, "well, God is present at Mass celebrated in the Sistine Chapel because there's so much eye candy, but not at Mass celebrated in an underground church in China", then you'd have a point. We're not FOCUSED on beauty, but we celebrate that God created this world, and indeed saw that it was good. Absolutely, we can sully anything holy if we try hard enough, but we're not decreasing God's glory by appreciating what we create FOR His glory. Protestantism very actively rejects things like statuary as idolatrous and, consequently, something offensive to God. If you fear that emphasis on art and exterior beauty may lead you into sin, then by all means, do what your conscience tells you. But let's not forget it was Jesus who told us to be the "salt of the earth", so forgive us Catholics if we have been blessed with the resources and refuse to make the House of God, well, bland.
But you know what, he chose to leave all that behind when he came to earth.
Well, not really. Even though He (primarily) kept it hidden during His earthly sojourn 2,000 years ago, Christ retained and continues to retain His full and unchanging Eternal Glory at one with His Divine Nature upon His Incarnation. Meaning the hypostastic union of His human nature (body and soul) with His Divine Nature in His one Person.
Yet for some reason we think it's ok to pursue glory down here - as long as we do it "for God's sake".
It is precisely the intention of the Incarnation of Christ - God becoming man - to reclaim and lift us up, with the rest of Creation, to His Eternal Glory in heaven.
It is true that we all have to be on guard for merely seeking earthly "glory" for our ego's sake, but this is different from using the visible and invisible products of God's Creation to Glorify God, under the auspices of His Grace, with the fullness of our being. Spiritually and bodily, individually and corporately.
The Grace of God builds on the nature He continues to perfect in us. It is precisely within context of our human nature to corporately "imitate" the Divine life in us through Sacred Art, pointing the way to an Eternal destiny.
This is a fundamentally different category than that of God proscribing the ancient Israelites from worshiping the false gods of other nations in the land at the time - "gods" whom the inhabitants would even offer their small children to as human sacrifices. Or that of God "laicizing" the twelve tribes sans the Levites because of the golden calf event. The golden calf was a false god of Egypt that the Israelites were reverting back to.
But even in the Torah, God does have specific commands on how the implements of worship were to be carefully crafted by the artists among the Israelites. Consider carefully the Ark of the Covenant and it's placement in the Holy of Holies.
There is obviously an hierarchy of importance in the life of worship and the situation of Sacred Art in it. But in worship, EVERYTHING is important. Both that which is absolute and that which is relative.
" We beleive the Bible when it tells us that God liked his Creation. It is inherently beautiful, all of it. To restrict beauty to Christ is to invite the question, why did God sent Him in the first place."
The Greeks celebrated beauty. The sought wisdom. But they didn't find God.
The Church is not about fulfilling the unfinished business of the Greeks, but in celebrating the beauty of a crucified Messiah - something the world finds foolish.
Petronius - what are your thoughts on the lavishly jeweled ark of the covenant, as demanded by God?
I am not quoting Epicurus, but the Bible. Why the non-sequitur? Following the Fall, the Devil was cursed and man's labor upon earth was cursed. Man was wounded, and knew death, but he was not cursed, nor was the earth or the creatures thereon. The beauty has always been an essential attribute of the Creation. The Greeks' quest for God was wretchedly incomplete, but they knew beauty. Luther could learn from them before he came up with his dungheap blasphemy.
Stop being un-Catholic, -- it is an unbiblical thing to do.
Do you have a purpose in life beyond being a rude fundie?
"I am not quoting Epicurus, but the Bible. Why the non-sequitur?"
Sorry, I thought it followed in the logical flow of the whole conversation - being as we're talking about disembodied "beauty" and all.
"but he was not cursed, nor was the earth..."
???
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake..."
"The Greeks' quest for God was wretchedly incomplete, but they knew beauty."
They know beauty... but they missed God! So why celebrate "beauty"???
"Luther could learn from them before he came up with his dungheap blasphemy. "
Hey! We're kind of friends - so I'm gonna let that slide...
"Stop being un-Catholic, -- it is an unbiblical thing to do."
What are you talking about? I love catholics!
" Do you have a purpose in life beyond being a rude fundie?"
You're late. Read on and learn...
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